Google's Initial Share Price Set at $85

So Google is finally through with its auction process and has set the initial share price at $85, lower than its initial expectaion range of $108 to $120. This ends weeks of speculation about what price the Google shares will debut at and begins new speculation as to which direction it will head on the first day of trading. Despite the fact that Google had to lower the initial share price, its still quite impressive that they went ahead with a largely untested mode of IPO and have still managed to set an initial market cap that is higher than that of as established an Internet play as Amazon and equals that of General Motors!

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Google IPO at What Price?

There has been tremendous buzz recently about the Google IPO. The initial euphoria over a possible return to the go-go days of dotcom IPO mania later tempered and recently degenerated into blatant negativitiy.

Over at CBS marketwatch 70% of nearly 6000 readers voted in a poll that they wouldn't touch the auction. Some feel that this negative wave is just the handiwork of those that want to get the stock at a low price so they can make a killing later.

Anyway, the IPO bidding is imminent and we will all know the results in a week or two. An S&P analyst has recommended that individual investors bid at $110.

Technorati Tags: Google Stock

Yahoo! Search - Competing with Google (Contd.)

Following up on my previous post of how Yahoo! plans to leverage user information to compete with Google on Search, some more info in this interview with Yahoo! representatives.

One of the things mentioned in the interview was that Ken Norton felt that the search offerings will differentiate in the next phase of search engines. While current implementations at Google, Yahoo! and the new MSN search seem to be similar, the distinctions will come up in due time with the research in each of these companies driven by their individual visions - Google wants to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible," Yahoo!'s calling its search "the engine of possibility," (elsewhere they have also implied that they want their search to be more task-oriented, this fits in with the reference to "understanding the user's intent" in the interview), what is Microsoft's mission?

Review of Yahoo! Local Search
Haven't had time to look it up myself, but looks like SEwatch likes it.

The Uncanny Valley

Interesting article on "the paradoxical point at which a simulation of life becomes so good it's bad," with regard to the world of games.